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The Dominion
May 31, 2002
Jury takes 35 min to clear league star of sex charges
by Ross Henderson
A jury took only 35 minutes yesterday to find Kiwi rugby league player Willie
Talau not guilty of sex charges, ending his trial in the High Court at
Wellington.
Sydney-based Talau, 26, plays for the Canterbury Bulldogs and has represented
the New Zealand
league team. He had pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual violation and
two of indecent assault relating to a 1991 incident outside a New Plymouth
10-pin bowling club when he was 15 and the complainant 13. The hearing was
before Justice Durie.
Outside the court afterward, Talau thanked the jury of nine men and three
women for a speedy verdict and also thanked people from Taranaki and Wellington who had
supported him.
"I am very relieved to have been vindicated by the jury's verdict. It
has been a terrible ordeal to face such a charge when innocent. It has been a
very difficult time and very hard on my family," said the father of
four, whose wife Kristy and six-month-old son Cooper were present throughout
the four-day trial.
Talau said he was now looking forward to returning to his home and playing
against South Sydney on Sunday.
The complainant, 24, had alleged that Talau had felt her breasts and thighs,
given her love bites and violated her near the club where they both worked.
Crown prosecutor Cherie Clarke said in her closing submission thatthe case
stood or fell on the credibility of the complainant. She had been traumatised
by the incident and had nothing to gain by making the allegations up, or
putting herself through the ordeal of a trial.
Ms Clarke said it was "ridiculous" to believe that no further
touching or contact had happened between Talau and the complainant after he
had earlier admitted that he enjoyed kissing her outside the club about 7pm.
The fact that Talau had also stopped going round to the complainant's home
after the incident was because he felt guilty about what he had done.
Talau's apology to the complainant in two phone calls in May 2000, in which
she had confronted him about the assaults, and an admission he had been young
and "stupid" also showed he felt guilty, Ms Clarke said.
Defence lawyer Donald Stevens said in his closing submission that even if the
alleged assault had taken only 10 minutes, the pair could not have gone
inside and worked afterwards as had been claimed, because they would have
been replaced if they had not been at work on time at 7pm.
Dr Stevens said inconsistencies between what the complainant told police and
what she said in court, plus the fact that she had lied to police to get
Talau to phone her in May 2000 showed she was unreliable.
A 10-year delay in bringing the case was also "grossly unfair", as
it had denied Talau access to evidence that might have helped him, he said.
There was no one else who could substantiate the woman's story, which Dr
Stevens said demonstrated the ease with which an innocent person could be
tried for a serious offence without supporting evidence.
"It's worrying that the state of the law in this country at the moment
is that any disturbed person can walk into a police station and make a false
allegation, and someone can be put on trial for a serious offence ... it's
pretty disturbing."
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